Four volunteer crew members have embarked on a simulated journey to Mars inside a ground-based habitat at NASA to study the isolation and confinement of exploration missions.
The simulated journey to Mars' moon Phobos began on Friday at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and will last for 45 days.The volunteer crew, which includes Jared Broddrick, Pietro Di Tillio, Dragos Michael Popescu and Patrick Ridgley, entered a structure called the Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA, which is"designed to serve as an analog for the rigors of real space exploration missions," NASA said in a statement.
Read More"In this HERA campaign, we're learning more about how teams function in an autonomous environment where they have limited contact with Earth," said Brandon Vessey, research operations and integration element scientist for NASA's Human Research Program, or HRP. "What we learn will inform how future exploration missions beyond low-Earth orbit are performed.
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Giant 'tree stump' impact crater spotted on MarsChelsea “Foxanne” Gohd joined Space.com in 2018 and is now a Senior Writer, writing about everything from climate change to planetary science and human spaceflight in both articles and on-camera in videos. With a degree in Public Health and biological sciences, Chelsea has written and worked for institutions including the American Museum of Natural History, Scientific American, Discover Magazine Blog, Astronomy Magazine and Live Science. When not writing, editing or filming something space-y, Chelsea 'Foxanne' Gohd is writing music and performing as Foxanne, even launching a song to space in 2021 with Inspiration4. You can follow her on Twitter chelsea_gohd and foxannemusic.
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